Faith 101

2 Timothy 2:13 (AMP)
 If we are faithless [do not believe and are untrue to Him],
 He remains true (faithful to His Word and His righteous character),
 for He cannot deny Himself.

Sometimes believers get the cart before the horse when it comes to faith.  They hear about faith and want to incorporate it into their lives before they truly get a revelation of what it is. In its simplest expression faith is trusting God. Before we can believe to get something which seems impossible or improbable we have to have confidence in the One providing for what we want.

Many Christians are trying to operate in faith when they have little personal revelation of the Goodness of God in their own lives.  Oh, when someone says “God is good”, an “amen” will quickly follow. There is a generic knowledge that God loves everybody; but to truly begin to understand faith and have it work in our lives we must experience an intimate relationship with God and know without a doubt that He wants the best for our lives and will always be there for us.

On our “good” days it’s not a struggle to believe that God is with us and working on our behalf. But on the “not so good” days when we don’t feel well – physically or emotionally – it doesn’t take much for us to start to waver in what we believe. (It’s so hard for us to get it into our heads that what we get from God is not based on anything good we do, but based entirely on His Goodness toward us)   When doubts set in 2 Timothy 2:13 is a good scripture to meditate on. In a nutshell it says that even when we are not faithful to God, He is faithful to us. One dictionary definition of faithful is “binding”. God is not going anywhere even on our worst day!  He has bound Himself to us in a covenant relationship by the shed Blood of Jesus.  Faithful is who He is and the Word says He cannot deny who He is.

If you are at the beginning of your relationship with God and just learning about Him or if you have walked with the Lord for a long time and find that you are wavering in some area that you are believing God to do a mighty work in, ask yourself this question, “Do I trust God?”  One dictionary definition of “trust” is “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength of someone”.  Find scriptures that reveal the nature of God and meditate on them. Here is a sample…

• Numbers 23:19 (NLT) ¹⁹ God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?
• Isaiah 55:11 (NLT) ¹¹ It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
• 2 Corinthians 1:20 (The Living Bible) ²⁰He carries out and fulfills all of God’s promises, no matter how many of them there are; and we have told everyone how faithful he is, giving glory to his name. 

The first step to walking in faith is to get a revelation that you can trust God.  You should daily confess something like this: “I trust You, Heavenly Father.  I don’t have to see things to know that you are at work in every area of my life and in the lives of those I love.”  When you get the doctor’s report you didn’t want, when your children seem to be going down a wrong path, or when the devil begins screaming words of discouragement into your thought life, say out loud, “Heavenly Father, I trust you.”  Repeat it as many times as you need to until a calm assurance begins to rise up within you that God has you covered.  Those five words will become the spark that will set your faith on fire!

2 Timothy 2:13 (The Living Bible)
Even when we are too weak to have any faith left,
he remains faithful to us and will help us,
for he cannot disown us who are part of himself,
and he will always carry out his promises to us.

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